The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures - (Catalan: Fòrum Universal de les Cultures, Spanish: Fórum Universal de las Culturas) was a 141-day international event that took place in the Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB) and its surrounding venues, Barcelona, Spain from May 9 to September 26, 2004, and was the first edition of the Universal Forum of Cultures. The open space used by the event is now a public park called the Parc del Fòrum.

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Show "L'Arbre de la Memòria" by Els Comediants, during the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures

The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures was organized by Barcelona's city council, the regional government (the Generalitat de Catalunya), the Spanish National Government and UNESCO. It was conceived by its prime mover (Pasqual Maragall, then Mayor of Barcelona) as a way of promoting the city's burgeoning tourist industry in the wake of the 1992 Olympic Games, which were also held in Barcelona. The forum was also politically useful, given the mayor's earlier failure to deliver on a 1996 promise to secure an international exposition for the city.

The official aims of the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures included support for peace, sustainable development, human rights and respect for diversity.

Josep Acebillo was named Director for Architecture and Infrastructures of the Forum. The events were held at the eastern end of Avinguda Diagonal, a main cross-city artery. The seaside area was developed to house the event. It covered 30 hectares between the Barcelona Olympic port and Sant Adrià de Besòs, and culminated the urban regeneration programme started for the 1992 Olympics. The new site comprises a convention center, central plaza, parks, auditoriums, a new port and a Forum Building (designed by architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron).

In the framework of this Forum, the 4th Porto Alegre Forum of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion was held, which approved the Agenda 21 for culture on 8 May 2004.

The forum showed four thematic exhibitions, intended to achieve a renewal of ideas and attitudes toward the 21st century, by undertaking a careful analysis of cultural diversity, sustainable development and the conditions for peace:

Inhabiting the World. A study about how humankind relates to the planet's environment. It showed the need to adopt a more rational criteria for the use of natural resources on a planetary scale. It also showed Earth's natural diversity, and the effect caused by human activity, specifically by the phenomenon of urbanization. Finally, exposed the huge consumption and waste production by Western society.

The broad business concept shaping the forum was largely drawn up by ESADE. The link between the forum's commercial sponsors and the business school can readily be appreciated by comparing the companies listed on ESADE's Board of Trustees and those featured on the forum's web site. The strong business orientation apparent in the organization of the event gave rise to considerable local controversy in both the run-up to the forum and during the event itself. Several NGOs argued that they were frozen out of the decision-making process as the original Forum concept was radically altered to cater to corporate interests.

The campaign against the forum took many forms. One of the biggest demonstrations consisted of a seaborne invasion by anti-Forum protesters [2] landing in makeshift rafts. This dealt a serious blow to the event's carefully groomed media image, particularly when Jordi Oliveras, the forum's Director-General was kicked by a demonstrator and Miquel Miró, the Director of Operations, was hit over the head by one of the forum's security guards. The "invasion" was widely reported in the press, despite the fact that major newspapers, radio and television stations had been co-opted into the forum under a special media consortium agreement.

The choice of some speakers at the forum's "dialogues" also sparked protest. An article in one of Catalonia's mass circulation dailies argued that Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (former President of Bolivia and a keynote speaker at a Forum conference on development problems in South America) was a less than ideal choice. Lozada had a major stake in Bolivia's highly polluting Potosi mine and the previous year had taken a flight to Miami while the Bolivian military machine-gunned striking miners at home.

The forum also attracted the ire of demonstrators when the organizers refused to condemn the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The fact that several of the forum's sponsors had significant stakes in the arms industry further exacerbated protests.

Critics pointed to the $2.3 billion price tag and commercial sponsorship by multinationals ENDESA, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Telefónica, and Indra with dubious reputations in the Third World. Several groups also criticised the massive property and coastline destruction involved in building the forum site. In addition, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Greenpeace and Amnesty International, withdrew from the forum project in protest. This may explain why the forum fell so far short of its projected attendance figures for the 141-day event. The forum expected 5 million visitors but the official final attendance figure was around 3.5 million. Independent estimates of attendance were significantly lower.

1.
Catalan language
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Catalan is a Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain and adjoining parts of France. It is the national and only language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands. It also has status in the commune of Alghero, situated on the northwestern coast of the island of Sardinia. All these territories are often called Catalan Countries. 4% with Catalan and 47. 5% only Spanish, in order to integrate newcomers, the Generalitat de Catalunya spends part of its annual budget on the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories. Catalan evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees, during the Low Middle Ages it saw a golden age as the literary and dominant language of the Crown of Aragon, and was widely used all over the Mediterranean. The union of Aragon with the territories of Spain in 1479 marked the start of the decline of the language. In 1659 Spain ceded Northern Catalonia to France, and Catalan was banned in both states in the early 18th century, 19th-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, which culminated in the 1913 orthographic standardization, and the official status of the language during the Second Spanish Republic. However, the Francoist dictatorship banned the use of Catalan in schools and in the public administration, there is no parallel in Europe for such a large, bilingual, non-state speech community. Catalan dialects are relatively uniform, and are mutually intelligible and they are divided into two blocks, Eastern and Western, differing mostly in pronunciation. The terms Catalan and Valencian are two varieties of the same language, there are two institutions regulating the two standard varieties, the Institute of Catalan Studies in Catalonia and the Valencian Academy of the Language in the Valencian Community. Catalan shares many traits with its neighboring Romance languages, thus, the similarities are naturally most notable with eastern Occitan. Nouns have two genders, and two numbers, pronouns additionally can have a neuter gender, and some are also inflected for case and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, in terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages. The word Catalan derives from the territory of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology, in English, the term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner, followed in the 15th century as Catellain. It is attested a language name since at least 1652, Catalan can be pronounced as /ˈkætəlæn/, /kætəˈlæn/ or /ˈkætələn/. The endonym is pronounced /kə. təˈɫa/ in the Eastern Catalan dialects, in the Valencian Community, the term valencià is frequently used instead. The names Catalan and Valencian are two names for the same language, see also status of Valencian below. By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south

2.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania

3.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343

4.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth

5.
Universal Forum of Cultures
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The Universal Forum of Cultures is an international cultural event intended to take place every three years. This event is organized by Forum Foundation, the first Forum was held in Barcelona, Catalonia, from May 9 to September 26,2004. It was organized by Barcelonas local council, the Catalan government and it was conceived by Catalan prime mover as a way of promoting the citys burgeoning tourist industry in the wake of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The official aims of the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures included support for peace, sustainable development, human rights, however, many NGOs criticised the event for failing to live up to these lofty ideals and boycotted it as a result. The event was controversial, with pointing to the $2.3 billion price tag. Several groups also criticised the property and coastline destruction involved in building the Forum site. This may explain why the Forum fell so far short of its projected attendance figures for the 141-day event, the forecasts were progressively scaled back from the planning stage, to 7 million and then 5 million during the event. The official final attendance figure was around 3.5 million, the 2007 Universal Forum of Cultures was held in Monterrey, Mexico. The event promoted Native American and White cultures, for the third edition, candidate cities were Chicago, Amsterdam, Fukuoka, Alexandria, Suwon and Gwangju, Santiago de Chile and Valparaíso, Budapest and Durban. Valparaíso, Chile was selected as host for the 2010 Universal Forum of Cultures, naples, Italy was selected as host for the 2013 Universal Forum of Cultures, while both Quebec City, Canada and Amman, Jordan were selected to host the 2016 forum. Quebec City decided to back off and give Amman the whole organisation of the event, UNESCO World Cultural Economic Forum Official Website

6.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005

7.
Pasqual Maragall
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Pasqual Maragall i Mira is a Spanish Catalan politician and was the 127th President of Generalitat de Catalunya. He had previously been Mayor of Barcelona, from 1982 to 1997 and he was born in Barcelona in 1941 as the third of eight siblings. His grandfather was the Catalonian poet Joan Maragall, in 1965, he married Diana Garrigosa, and he has two daughters and a son. He was an member of the Front Obrer de Catalunya. He studied Law and Economics at the UB between 1957 and 1964 and he also cooperated with the Studies Service of the Banco Urquijo, run by Ramon Trias Fargas. Between 1971 and 1973, he lived in New York City, in 1973, he came back to Barcelona and returned to the Barcelona City Council and to the UAB, where he gave classes on urban economics and international economics as temporary assistant lecturer. One year earlier, he supported Convergència Socialista de Catalunya, one of the groups of the PSC. In 1978, at the Economics Faculty of the UAB, he presented his doctoral thesis The prices of urban land, in 1978, he was a researcher and guest professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. This university would later appoint him doctor honoris causa and he joined the PSC electoral list in the first democratic municipal election for Barcelona City Council in 1979 and this party won the most votes at the ballot box. His friend Narcís Serra became Mayor while he became tinent dalcalde for Administrative Reform, on 1 December 1982 he succeeded Narcís Serra as Mayor of Barcelona, since Serra was appointed minister of Defence by the new Socialist government of Felipe González. In 1986, Barcelona was chosen to host the 1992 Summer Olympics Accordingly, the Olympics provided the city with sorely needed infrastructure. Another Maragall initiative, the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures, exhibited the same top-down approach and it is widely recognised, however, that the 92 Games helped Barcelona to redefine itself as one of the great cities of Europe. From 1991 to 1997, he was President of the Council of Municipalities and he was also Vice-President of the International Union of Local Authorities and President of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union from 1996 to 1998. In 1997, Pasqual Maragall resigned as Barcelonas Mayor and returned to university lecturing in Rome, however, he came back to active politics and was elected as the PSC-CpC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the 1999 election. In 2000, he was elected President of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, from 1999 to 2003, he presided the PSC-CpC parliamentary group. On 16 December 2003, Pasqual Maragall was elected President of the Generalitat by the Catalan Parliament after cliff-hanger negotiations with the ERC and he finally took office on 20 December. While generally popular as Mayor of Barcelona, Maragalls career as President of the government was marked by a series of crises. A particularly severe one involved Chief Councilor Carods secret trip to France to unofficially negotiate with ETA, in October 2005 Maragall met with objections regarding his plans for reshuffling the cabinet without consulting either his coalition partners or his party

8.
1992 Summer Olympics
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The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event played in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain in 1992. The games were the first to be unaffected by boycotts since 1972, Barcelona is the second-largest city in Spain, and the birthplace of then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch. The city was also a host for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, on October 17,1986, Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Games over Amsterdam, Belgrade, Birmingham, Brisbane, and Paris, during the 91st IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. Barcelona had previously bid for the 1936 Summer Olympics, but they ultimately lost to Berlin, at the Opening Ceremony Greek mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa sang Romiossini as the Olympic flag was paraded around the stadium. Alfredo Kraus later sang the Olympic Hymn in both Catalan and Spanish as the flag was hoisted, the Olympic flame cauldron was lit by a flaming arrow, shot by Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo. The arrow had been lit by the flame of the Olympic Torch, Rebollo overshot the cauldron as this was the original design of the lighting scheme. South Africa was allowed to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time since the 1960 Summer Olympics, after a long suspension for its apartheid policy. After a close race in the Womens 10,000 metres event, white South African runner Elana Meyer and black Ethiopian runner Derartu Tulu ran a victory lap together, hand-in-hand. Following its reunification in 1990, Germany sent a single, unified Olympic team for the first time since the 1964 Summer Olympics. As the Soviet Union had been dissolved in 1991, the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania sent their own teams for the first time since 1936, the other Soviet republics competed under the name Unified Team. These nations consisted of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the separation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led to the Olympic debuts of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to United Nations sanctions, athletes from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were not allowed to participate with their own team, however, some individual athletes competed under the Olympic flag as Independent Olympic Participants. Fermín Cacho won the 1,500 metres in his home country, chinese diver Fu Mingxia, age 13, became the youngest Olympic gold medalist of all time. In mens artistic gymnastics, Vitaly Scherbo from Belarus, won six gold medals, Scherbo tied Eric Heidens record for individual gold medals at a single Olympics, winning five medals in an individual event. In womens artistic gymnastics, Tatiana Gutsu took gold in the All-Around competition edging the United States Shannon Miller, russian swimmers dominated the freestyle events, with Alexander Popov and Yevgeny Sadovyi each winning two events. Sadovyi also won in the relays, evelyn Ashford won her fourth Olympic gold medal in the 4×100-metre relay, making her one of only four female athletes to have achieved this in history. The young Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary won three individual swimming gold medals, in womens 200 metre breaststroke, Kyoko Iwasaki of Japan won a gold medal at age of 14 years and six days, making her the youngest-ever gold medalist in swimming competitions at the Olympics. After demonstrated in six previous Summer Olympic Games, baseball became an Olympic sport

9.
Mikhail Gorbachev
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Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman. He was the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 and he was the countrys head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family and he graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While he was at the university, he joined the Communist Party, in 1970, he was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, First Secretary to the Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member of the Politburo in 1979. Within three years of the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, following the brief interregna of Andropov and Chernenko, before he reached the post, he had occasionally been mentioned in Western newspapers as a likely next leader and a man of the younger generation at the top level. Gorbachevs policies of glasnost and perestroika and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War. He was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and this was Gorbachevs third attempt to establish a political party, having started the Social Democratic Party of Russia in 2001 and the Union of Social Democrats in 2007. Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, into a mixed Russian-Ukrainian family of migrants from Voronezh, as a child, Gorbachev experienced the Soviet famine of 1932–1933. He recalled in a memoir that In that terrible year nearly half the population of my village, Privolnoye, starved to death. Both of his grandfathers were arrested on charges in the 1930s. His father was a combine harvester operator and World War II veteran and his mother, Maria Panteleyevna Gorbacheva, was a kolkhoz worker. He was brought up mainly by his Ukrainian maternal grandparents, in his teens, he operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law, in 1967 he qualified as an agricultural economist via a correspondence masters degree at the Stavropol Institute of Agriculture. While at the university, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and soon very active within the party. Gorbachev met his wife, Raisa Titarenko, daughter of a Ukrainian railway engineer. They married in September 1953 and moved to Stavropol upon graduation and she gave birth to their only child, daughter Irina Mikhailovna Virganskaya, in 1957. Raisa Gorbacheva died of leukemia in 1999, Gorbachev has two granddaughters and one great granddaughter. Gorbachev attended the important twenty-second Party Congress in October 1961, where Nikita Khrushchev announced a plan to surpass the U. S. in per capita production within twenty years, Gorbachev rose in the Communist League hierarchy and worked his way up through territorial leagues of the party

10.
Juan Antonio Samaranch
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Samaranch served the second longest term as the head of the IOC, the longest being that of Pierre de Coubertin. Juan Antonio Samaranch was born on 17 July 1920 in Barcelona as the third of six children in a family from the Catalan rich bourgeoisie, on 1 December 1955, he married Maria Teresa Salisachs Rowe. With Salisachs Rowe, he had two children, Juan Antonio Junior, currently a member of the International Olympic Committee, in 1991 he received the title of Marqués from the King of Spain for his involvement in the Olympic Movement. Samaranch completed his studies at the Business School of Barcelona, which he completed in London and the USA, during his studies, he practised roller hockey, for which he created World Championships in 1951 and which the Spanish team won. On several occasions, he was appointed Chef de Mission, for the Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Summer Games in Rome, for the Rome and Tokyo Games, he was also President of the Spanish delegation. Elected a member of the Spanish Olympic Committee in 1956, he became its President in 1967 until 1970 and he was elected as an IOC member in 1966. Two years later, Avery Brundage appointed him Head of Protocol, a member of the Executive Board, he was IOC Vice-President from 1974 to 1978. Elected to the IOC presidency in the first round of voting on 16 July 1980 at the 83rd Session, Juan Antonio Samaranch endeavoured to breathe new life into the Olympic Movement. He acceded to the IOC presidency during the political period of the Games of the XXII Olympiad in Moscow. Above all, he sought to give unity to the Olympic family by defending its cause on his numerous trips and meetings with heads of state. In 1981, he obtained for the IOC the status of non-governmental international organisation and became the first IOC President, after Pierre de Coubertin, to establish himself in Lausanne. He was also in favour of the feminisation of the Olympic Movement, at his instigation, the IOC became involved in various initiatives to promote women and sport. Among his accomplishments are his many activities to promote peace through the Olympic Movement, for sport, he intensified the IOC’s support to organise Paralympic Games as from the Winter Games in Sarajevo in 1984. He also made doping a priority issue by launching vast research, the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999 allowed the IOC Medical Commission to extend its scope of action. Finally, it was under his presidency that the Summer and Winter Games were organised every two years, instead of in the year, still respecting the gap of four years. Among the reforms to the running of the IOC, he imposed a new policy which allowed for the increase in revenues. On 23 June 1993, the inauguration of the Olympic Museum, representing the memory and spirit of modern Olympism, on 16 July 2001, he left the seat of the IOC presidency to Jacques Rogge and became Honorary President for Life. He died on the 21st of April 2010 at the age of 89, after the defeat of the Republic in 1939, Samaranch studied commerce at IESE Business School in Barcelona

11.
Angelina Jolie
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Angelina Jolie Pitt, DCMG is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and has cited as Hollywoods highest-paid actress. Jolie made her debut as a child alongside her father, Jon Voight. Her film career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2, followed by her first leading role in a major film, Hackers. She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical cable films George Wallace and Gia, Jolies starring role as the video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft, Tomb Raider established her as a leading Hollywood actress. Beginning in the 2010s, she expanded her career into directing, screenwriting and her biggest commercial success came with the fantasy picture Maleficent. Her personal life is the subject of wide publicity, divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, she separated from her third husband, actor Brad Pitt, in September 2016. They have six children together, three of whom were adopted internationally, born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of actor James Haven and niece of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor and her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her fathers side, Jolie is of German and Slovak descent, and on her mothers side, she is of primarily French Canadian, Dutch, like her mother, Jolie has stated that she is part Iroquois, although her only known indigenous ancestors were 17th-century Hurons. After her parents separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother lived with their mother, when Jolie was six years old, Bertrand and her live-in partner, filmmaker Bill Day, moved the family to Palisades, New York, they returned to Los Angeles five years later. Jolie then decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Jolie first attended Beverly Hills High School, where she felt isolated among the children of some of the areas affluent families because her mother survived on a more modest income. She was teased by other students, who targeted her for being extremely thin and her early attempts at modeling, at her mothers insistence, proved unsuccessful. She dropped out of her classes and aspired to become a funeral director. She also struggled with insomnia and an eating disorder, and began experimenting with drugs, by age 20, she had used just about every drug possible, particularly heroin. Jolie suffered episodes of depression and twice planned to commit suicide—at age 19 and again at 22, when she was 24, she experienced a nervous breakdown and was admitted for 72 hours to UCLA Medical Centers psychiatric ward. Two years later, after adopting her first child, Jolie found stability in her life, later stating, I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again. Jolie has had a dysfunctional relationship with her father, which began when Voight left the family when his daughter was less than a year old

12.
Robert McNamara
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Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, during which time he played a role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Following that, he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981, McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis. McNamara consolidated intelligence and logistics functions of the Pentagon into two centralized agencies, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Supply Agency. Prior to his service, McNamara was one of the Whiz Kids who helped rebuild Ford Motor Company after World War II. A group of advisors he brought to the Pentagon inherited the Whiz Kids moniker, McNamara remains the longest serving Secretary of Defense, having remained in office over seven years. Robert McNamara was born in San Francisco, California and his father was Robert James McNamara, sales manager of a wholesale shoe company, and his mother was Clara Nell McNamara. His fathers family was Irish and in about 1850, following the Great Irish Famine, had emigrated to the U. S. first to Massachusetts and later to California. He graduated from Piedmont High School in Piedmont in 1933, where he was president of the Rigma Lions boys club, McNamara attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with minors in mathematics and philosophy. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his sophomore year, and earned a varsity letter in crew. McNamara was also a member of the UC Berkeleys Order of the Golden Bear which was a fellowship of students and he then attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA in 1939. One major responsibility was the analysis of U. S. bombers efficiency and effectiveness, especially the B-29 forces commanded by Major General Curtis LeMay in India, China, and the Mariana Islands. McNamara established a control unit for XX Bomber Command and devised schedules for B-29s doubling as transports for carrying fuel. He left active duty in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, in 1946, Charles Tex Thornton, a colonel under whom McNamara had served, put together a group of officers from his AAF Statistical Control operation to go into business together. Thornton had seen an article in Life magazine portraying Ford as being in dire need of reform, henry Ford II, himself a World War II veteran from the Navy, hired the entire group of 10, including McNamara. The Whiz Kids, as came to be known, helped the money-losing company reform its chaotic administration through modern planning, organization. Whiz Kids origins, Because of their youth, combined with asking lots of questions, Ford employees initially and disparagingly, the Quiz Kids rebranded themselves as the Whiz Kids. Starting as manager of planning and financial analysis, he advanced rapidly through a series of management positions

13.
Lionel Jospin
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Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002 and he was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995. Lionel Jospin was born to a Protestant family in Meudon, a suburb of Paris and he is the son of Robert Jospin. He attended the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly before studying at the Institut détudes politiques de Paris and he was active in the UNEF students union, protesting against the war in Algeria. He completed his service as an officer in charge of armoured training in Trier. After his graduation from the ENA in 1965, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as secretary of Foreign Affairs and he became in charge of economic cooperation there, and worked with Ernest-Antoine Seillière, future leader of the MEDEF employers union. Integrating François Mitterrands circle, he became the second highest-ranking member of the party in 1979, in 1984, when Laurent Fabius was chosen as Prime minister, a rivalry appeared between these two political heirs of Mitterrand. It broke out when they competed for the leadership of the 1986 legislative campaign, in 1988, after Mitterrands re-election, he left the PS leadership, and, though the President considered naming him Prime Minister, he was nominated Minister of Education. His rivalry with Fabius intensified and caused a crisis, notably during the Rennes Congress. Indeed, the mitterrandist group in the party split because Jospin followers allied with the factions to prevent the election of Fabius as First Secretary. As a member of the National Assembly, Jospin served first as a representative of Paris, Jospin lost his seat in the National Assembly in the Socialists landslide defeat in the 1993 legislative election and announced his political retirement. In 1993, Lionel Jospin was appointed ministre plénipotentiaire, 2nd class and he was, however, not appointed to any embassy. Finally, he came back and claimed the necessity to take stock of the mitterrandist inheritance so as to restore the credibility of the Socialist Party, in this, he was selected to be the Socialist candidate for President in 1995, against the PS leader Henri Emmanuelli. Following the Socialists landslide defeats of 1992–1994, Jospin was considered to have little chance of victory, but he did surprisingly well, leading the first round and losing only very narrowly to Jacques Chirac in the final runnoff election. Despite defeat, his performance was seen to mark a revival of the Socialists as a force in French politics. He built a new coalition with the other left-wing parties, the French Communist Party, the Greens, the Left Radical Party, two years later, Chirac decided to call an early election for the National Assembly, hoping for a personal endorsement. But the move backfired as the Plural Left obtained a parliamentary majority, Jospin is a Member of the Club of Madrid. Jospin served as Prime Minister during Frances third cohabitation government under President Jacques Chirac from 1997 to 2002, despite his previous image as a rigid socialist, Jospin went on selling state-owned enterprises, lowered the VAT rate, income tax and company tax

14.
Romano Prodi
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Romano Prodi, OMRI is an Italian former politician and economist. He twice served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and he was also the tenth President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He is nicknamed Il Professore due to his occupation as professor of Economics at the University of Bologna, following the victory of his coalition The Union over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the April 2006 Italian elections, Prodi took power again. Up to this time, he has been the only one candidate of Italian Centre-left who won elections. On 14 October 2007, Prodi became the first President of the Democratic Party upon foundation of the party, on 12 September 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon selected Prodi as president of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel. He is currently serving as the UN Special Envoy for the Sahel, Prodi was born in Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia. He is the eighth of nine children of Mario Prodi, an originally from a peasant family, and Enrica. He has two sisters and six brothers, five of them being like him university professors, Prodi married Flavia Franzoni in 1969. He was married by Camillo Ruini, now a well-known cardinal and they have two sons, Giorgio and Antonio. He and his family live in Bologna. He then carried out postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, Prodi has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute. His research covers mainly competition regulations and the development of small and he is also interested in relations between states and markets, and the dynamics of the different capitalistic models. Prodi has received almost 20 honorary degrees from institutions in Italy, and from the rest of Europe, North America, Asia, in 1982–1989 Prodi was President of the influential state-owned industrial holding company Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale. After leaving his position, Prodi ran the Bologna based consulting company Analisi e Studi Economici, between 1990 and 1993 the company earned £1.4 million, most of which was paid by the investment bank Goldman Sachs. In 1993-1994 Prodi was again President of the IRI, where he oversaw extensive privatization of public assets, Prodis former employer Goldman Sachs was involved in both of the deals. In February 2007 the Italian Treasury Police raided the Milan office of Goldman Sachs, the case was however shut down within weeks by superiors, while Geremia was exiled to Sardinia. Prodis political career began as a left-of-centre reformist Christian Democrat and a disciple of Beniamino Andreatta, during the mid-1970s he was appointed Minister of Industry. During Giulio Andreottis government in 1978, he served as a Technical Minister, through the 1980s, Prodi claimed he had been given this tip-off by the founders of the Christian Democracy party, contacted from beyond the grave via a séance and a Ouija board

15.
Salman Rushdie
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Sir Ahmad Salman Rushdie, FRSL is a British Indian novelist and essayist. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent and he combines magical realism with historical fiction, his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations. His epic fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, was the subject of a major controversy, death threats were made against him, including a fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989. The British government put Rushdie under police protection, in 1983 Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the UKs senior literary organisation. He was appointed Commandeur de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999, in June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945, since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015, earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in 2012, he published Joseph Anton, A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the controversy over The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was strongly favoured to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature but the Nobel organisers were later quoted as saying that they would have been too predictable, Rushdie was born in Bombay, then British India, into a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent. He is the son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a Cambridge-educated lawyer-turned-businessman, and Negin Bhatt and he wrote in his 2012 memoir that his father adopted the name Rushdie in honour of Averroes. He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay, Rugby School in Warwickshire, and Kings College, University of Cambridge and his father Anis Rushdie was rusticated from the Indian Civil Service after the British government found out that he had changed his date of birth. Collaborating with the musician Ronnie Bond, Rushdie wrote the words for a record on behalf of the now defunct Burnley Building Society which was recorded at Good Earth Studios. The song was called The Best Dreams and was sung by George Chandler and it was while he was at Ogilvy that he wrote Midnights Children, before becoming a full-time writer. Rushdies first novel, Grimus, a fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public. His next novel, Midnights Children, catapulted him to literary notability and this work won the 1981 Booker Prize and, in 1993 and 2008, was awarded the Best of the Bookers as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 and 40 years. The character of Saleem Sinai has been compared to Rushdie, in that sense, I’ve never felt that I’ve written an autobiographical character. After Midnights Children, Rushdie wrote Shame, in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan, basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Shame won Frances Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and was a close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of literature are characterised by a style of magic realism

16.
Josep Acebillo
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Josep Acebillo is a Spanish architect. Professor at the Academy of Architecture Università della Svizzera Italiana, Member of the Board of Directors and Professor of Barcelona Institute of Architecture. Principal architect of Architectural Systems Office, Josep Acebillo obtained his architecture degree in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. From 1974 to 1979, he worked independently or in collaboration with the MBM studio, pere de Ribes-Barcelona and the Second National Price of Urbanism in Spain. The Public Urban Spaces of Barcelona constructed during this period were awarded for the quality with the Prince of Wales Prize in Urban Design of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was the recipient of the Honorific Medal of the City of Barcelona in 1992 for his contribution to the urban transformation. From 1993 to 2011 he was the CEO of the Metropolitan Agency Barcelona Regional and his efforts were awarded with the Special European Price of Urbanism 1997/1998 of the European Commission for the project Infrastructure and General Metropolitan Systems. Later on 1998 he was appointed “Commissioner of Infrastructures and Urban Planning” of Barcelona, in 1999 he became the Chief Architect of the city of Barcelona. During the same year he was named a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2009 he founded BcNSus, an economic interest group based in Barcelona, led by key players from public and private entities and he was CEO of BcNSuS until 2011. Under the urban leadership of Acebillo, Barcelona has received recognition for the positioning of the city in the international architecture field. Following this recognition, Josep Acebillo was frequently called on to other cities such as London, Ostend, Kazan, etc. In 2003, in the case of London, he was appointed a member of the International Design Committee to assess the city development. Since 2001 Acebillo has taught the Culture of Territory in the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio, in 2004 he founded the Institute for the Contemporary Urban Project and in the same year was named Director for Architecture and Infrastructure of the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona. Since 2007 he has opened up a professional studio Architectural Systems Office in collaboration with architect Stanislava Boskovic Sigon and he continues teaching in the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio. Architect by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Professor at the Ilaud, Urbino, Italy. Director of the postgraduate course The architecture on al large scale, Director of the postgraduate course Architecture in complex scales, Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. Professor of the postgraduate course Projecting the city, Infrastructures and complexity, Professor of the Master course in urban planning Metropolitan complexity, Polytechnic University of Catalonia

17.
Avinguda Diagonal
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Avinguda Diagonal is the name of one of Barcelonas broadest and most important avenues. It cuts the city in two, diagonally from west to east, hence the name, both would meet at Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which Cerdà envisioned as the new city centre. Avinguda Diagonal remains to this day a much-transited avenue and many companies and hotels use it as a privileged location, the avenue starts in the Les Corts district on the western edge of the city and runs to the Sant Martí district on the eastern edge. To its west, it connects with the Lleida-Madrid highway and Ronda de Dalt in the municipality of Esplugues de Llobregat. To its east, it meets the Ronda del Litoral on the border with the municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs and it is consistently 50 metres wide and about 11 kilometres long. The different regimes that held power in Catalonia and Spain during the 20th century sought to change the street names. It has been known under the names, Gran Via Diagonal – original name which Ildefons Cerdà. Avinguda de la Nacionalitat Catalana –1922, during Miguel Primo de Riveras dictatorship, named after King Alfonso XIII. Avinguda del Catorze dAbril –1931, Gran Vía Diagonal –1939, provisional name imposed the day after the Fascist capture of Barcelona as an attempt to eliminate references to the Republic. Avenida del Generalísimo Francisco Franco –1939, during the authoritarian regime of Francisco Franco. Avinguda Diagonal – Its current name, adopted following the restoration of democracy in 1979, however, it should be noted that the name Diagonal has always prevailed in popular usage. Ildefons Cerdàs so-called Pla Cerdà was not totally successful in transforming Barcelonas urban reality, the city council of Barcelona had previously requested the approval of Antoni Rovira i Triass alternative project instead, which had been rejected. Francesc Cambó, leader of Lliga Regionalista proposed the construction of a new palace for the then monarch Alfonso XIII in 1919, Avinguda Diagonal suffered several attacks by the Basque separatist organisation ETA in 2000. On 2 November, a car bomb exploded injuring a security officer, a few days later, on 21 November, a car used by the killers of Enerst Lluch exploded in the middle of the avenue. On 20 December a municipal officer was shot dead, four venues in the area hosted competitions for the 1992 Summer Olympics. During 2010, Diagonal reform proposals were on the headlines, as the Barcelona city council had plans to make the cross the whole avenue. A popular consultation was scheduled for May 2010 between two reform proposals, the so-called rambla or boulevard and it resulted in a big political failure for the city mayor, Jordi Hereu. There was a participation of 12% of potential voters

18.
Herzog & de Meuron
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Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. or Herzog & de Meuron Architekten, BSA/SIA/ETH, is a Swiss architecture firm with its head office in Basel, Switzerland. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron closely paralleled one another and they are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of Tate Modern. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994, Herzog & de Meuron was founded in Basel in 1978. In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, jury chairman J. Carter Brown commented, One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity. This was in reference to HdMs innovative use of materials and treatments. In 2006, the New York Times Magazine called them one of the most admired architecture firms in the world, HdMs early works were reductivist pieces of modernity that registered on the same level as the minimalist art of Donald Judd. However, their recent work at Prada Tokyo, the Barcelona Forum Building, HdMs commitment of articulation through materiality is a common thread through all their projects. Their formal gestures have generally progressed from the purist simplicity of forms to more complex. The architects often cite Joseph Beuys as an artistic inspiration. Their success can be attributed to their skills in revealing unfamiliar or unknown relationships by utilizing innovative materials. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland 2003 Laban Dance Centre, Deptford Creek, London, UK2003 Prada Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan 2004 Forum Building, Barcelona 2004 IKMZ, Cottbus, Germany 2005 M. H

19.
Agenda 21 for culture
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The Agenda 21 for culture is the reference document of the local governments to draw up their cultural policies. It’s based on the principles of cultural diversity, human rights, intercultural dialogue, participatory democracy, sustainability, the Agenda 21 for culture is a tool to promote the role of culture in local policies. The present canonical triangle of sustainable development - environment, social inclusion, therefore, the Agenda 21 for culture is a tool to turn culture into a fourth pillar of sustainable development. This confirms the importance of having solid and autonomous cultural policies as well as the establishment of bridges to other dominions of the governance. After nearly two years of work, the document was approved on 8 May 2004 in Barcelona. From October of this year, the world organization United Cities. UCLG is the world’s biggest association of governments, founded on May 2004 to defend democracy and local autonomy. In the UCLG, the Agenda 21 for culture is managed by the Committee on culture, the cities of Angers, Barcelona and Milán Vice-presidents. It was also agreed to three other cities to join the Board as Vice-Presidents. Before 2012, the Committee on culture was chaired by Barcelona city council, all translations, articles and information about seminars and publications can be found in pdf format on the Agenda 21 for culture website. Around 350 cities, local governments and organizations all over the world are linked to Agenda 21 for culture. State of affairs and outlook Culture and sustainable development, examples of innovation and proposal of a new cultural policy profile Cities, cultures. A report that marks the anniversary of Agenda 21 for culture Rio+20. Culture’s Essential Role in Public Planning, Local Policies for Cultural Diversity UCLG. Culture, Local Governments and Millennium Development Goals UCLG, Culture and Sustainable Development, Examples of Institutional Innovation and Proposal of a New Cultural Policy Profile UCLG. A Report that Marks the Fifth Anniversay of the Agenda 21 for Culture Pascual, Cultural Policies, Human Development and Institutional Innovation, or Why We Need an Agenda 21 for culture Montréal, cultural metropolis Lille City Council Buenos Aires City Council

20.
Mona Kim
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Mona Kim is a Korean-American designer born in South Korea and educated in the United States. Kim is a design consultant and a visual artist for cultural and commercial projects. Kim is a Carnegie Mellon University graduate with BFA degree with Honors in Design and she had been selected by IBM Strategic Design branch during her last year in the university to collaborate with leaders in the design field such as Edward Tufte and Sam Lucente. In 1990, Kim moved to Italy which had influenced her work. In Milan, she had worked with the late Ettore Sottsass and had introduced to the instinctual approach to design. During this time, Kim also started to design environments and experiential spaces for thematic museums and she has also worked on branded art installations for Uniqlo and scenography for Premiere Vision. In addition, she has lectured at conferences for digital culture and creativity such as Artfutura. Kim has also been a faculty and thesis advisor at Parsons Paris School of Art and Design, adjunct faculty at IDEP, Istituto Europeo di Design. Kim has worked internationally in New York, Milan and Barcelona and she is presently based in Paris. 2010 Finalist for international art competition “Design As Reform” Vol. D, montxo Algora I. D.2008 Sept–Oct Domus,2008 Sept Diseno Interior,2008 August Creative Review,2008 July The New York Times,2008 June 15 I. D

21.
Languages
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Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The scientific study of language is called linguistics, questions concerning the philosophy of language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated since Gorgias and Plato in Ancient Greece. Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought, 20th-century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is really the study of language. Major figures in linguistics include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky, estimates of the number of languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. However, any precise estimate depends on an arbitrary distinction between languages and dialects. Natural languages are spoken or signed, but any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, in whistling, signed and this is because human language is modality-independent. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings, human language has the properties of productivity and displacement, and relies entirely on social convention and learning. Its complex structure affords a wider range of expressions than any known system of animal communication. Language is processed in different locations in the human brain. Humans acquire language through interaction in early childhood, and children generally speak fluently when they are approximately three years old. The use of language is deeply entrenched in human culture, a group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family. The languages of the Dravidian family that are mostly in Southern India include Tamil. Academic consensus holds that between 50% and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning of the 21st century will probably have become extinct by the year 2100. The English word language derives ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s tongue, speech, language through Latin lingua, language, tongue, and Old French language. The word is used to refer to codes, ciphers. Unlike conventional human languages, a language in this sense is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information. This article specifically concerns the properties of human language as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics. As an object of study, language has two primary meanings, an abstract concept, and a specific linguistic system, e. g. French

22.
Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun

23.
Western world
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The Western world or the West is a term usually referring to different nations, depending on the context, most often including at least part of Europe. There are many accepted definitions about what they all have in common, the Western world is also known as the Occident. The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified Western Civilization with the Western Christian countries and culture. Its political usage was changed by the antagonism during the Cold War in the mid-to-late 20th Century. The term originally had a literal geographic meaning, Western culture was influenced by many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East, such as Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, Sumer, Babylonia, and also Ancient Egypt. It originated in the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity, Greece, over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and west to include the rest of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal areas, conquering and absorbing. Later, they expanded to the north of the Mediterranean Sea to include Western, Central, numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Christian missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity. There is debate among some as to whether Latin America is in a category of its own, specifically, Western culture may imply, a Biblical Christian cultural influence in spiritual thinking, customs and either ethic or moral traditions, around the Post-Classical Era and after. European cultural influences concerning artistic, musical, folkloric, ethic and oral traditions, the concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic, much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and Oceania. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the Roman Empire, Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the civilized world. Use of the term West as a cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of the Age of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world. Additionally, closer contacts between the West and Asia and other parts of the world in recent times have continued to cloud the use, herodotus considered the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of Europa versus Asia. The terms West and East were not used by any Greek author to describe that conflict, the Great Schism and the Fourth Crusade confirmed this deviation. The Renaissance in the West emerged partly from currents within the Roman Empire, Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a city-state founded on the Italian Peninsula about the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its 12-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy, to a republic, nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual decline of the Roman Empire

24.
Piccadilly Circus
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Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of Londons West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning circle, is an open space at a street junction. Piccadilly now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, as well as the Haymarket, Coventry Street, the Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the West End. Its status as a traffic junction has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place. It is surrounded by several buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre. Directly underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus tube station, part of the London Underground system, the street was known as Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza, the queen consort of King Charles II of England but was known as Piccadilly by 1743. Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, around 1858 it was briefly known as Regents Circus. The circus lost its form in 1886 with the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. The junction has been a busy traffic interchange since construction, as it lies at the centre of Theatreland and handles exit traffic from Piccadilly. The Piccadilly Circus tube station was opened 10 March 1906, on the Bakerloo line, in 1928, the station was extensively rebuilt to handle an increase in traffic. The junctions first electric advertisements appeared in 1910, and, from 1923, traffic lights were first installed on 3 August 1926. During World War II many servicemens clubs in the West End served American soldiers based in Britain, at the start of the 1960s, it was determined that the Circus needed to be redeveloped to allow for greater traffic flow. This concept was kept throughout the rest of the 1960s. A final scheme in 1972 proposed three octagonal towers to replace the Trocadero, the Criterion and the Monico buildings. The plans were rejected by Sir Keith Joseph and Ernest Marples, the key reason given was that Holfords scheme only allowed for a 20% increase in traffic. Piccadilly Circus has since escaped major redevelopment, apart from extensive ground-level pedestrianisation around its side in the 1980s. The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the works of Anthony Ashley Cooper. During the Second World War, the statue atop the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain was removed and was replaced by advertising hoardings, Piccadilly Circus is surrounded by several major tourist attractions, including the Shaftesbury Memorial, Criterion Theatre, London Pavilion and several major retail stores

25.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

26.
Times Square
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It stretches from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. One of the worlds busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District, Times Square is one of the worlds most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually. Approximately 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of them tourists, the southern triangle of Times Square has no specific name, but the northernmost of the two triangles is called Father Duffy Square. Since 2008, the booth has been backed by a red, sloped, triangular set of stairs, which is used by people to sit, talk, eat. When Manhattan Island was first settled by the Dutch, three small streams united near what is now 10th Avenue and 40th street and these three streams formed the Great Kill. From there the Great Kill wound through the low-lying Reed Valley, known for fish and waterfowl, the name was retained in a tiny hamlet, Great Kill, that became a center for carriage-making, as the upland to the south and east became known as Longacre. Before and after the American Revolution, the area belonged to John Morin Scott, scotts manor house was at what is currently 43rd Street, surrounded by countryside used for farming and breeding horses. By 1872, the area had become the center of New Yorks horse carriage industry, the locality had not previously been given a name, and city authorities called it Longacre Square after Long Acre in London, where the horse and carriage trade was centered in that city. William Henry Vanderbilt owned and ran the American Horse Exchange there, in 1910 it became the Winter Garden Theatre. The first theater on the square, the Olympia, was built by cigar manufacturer, by the early 1890s this once sparsely settled stretch of Broadway was ablaze with electric light and thronged by crowds of middle- and upper-class theatre, restaurant and cafe patrons. In 1904, New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs persuaded Mayor George B, mcClellan, Jr. to construct a subway station there, and the area was renamed Times Square on April 8,1904. Just three weeks later, the first electrified advertisement appeared on the side of a bank at the corner of 46th Street, the north end later became Duffy Square, and the former Horse Exchange became the Winter Garden Theatre. The New York Times, according to Nolan, moved to spacious offices west of the square in 1913. The old Times Building was later named the Allied Chemical Building in 1963, now known simply as One Times Square, it is famed for the Times Square Ball drop on its roof every New Years Eve. In 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association, headed by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, chose the intersection of 42nd Street and Broadway to be the Eastern Terminus of the Lincoln Highway. This was the first road across the United States, which originally spanned 3,389 miles coast-to-coast through 13 states to its terminus in Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Times Square grew dramatically after World War I and it became a cultural hub full of theatres, music halls, and upscale hotels. Times Square quickly became New Yorks agora, a place to gather to await great tidings and to celebrate them, advertising also grew significantly in the 1920s, growing from $25 million to $85 million over the decade

27.
Flatiron Building
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The building sits on a triangular block formed by Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and East 22nd Street, with 23rd Street grazing the triangles northern peak. As with numerous other wedge-shaped buildings, the name Flatiron derives from its resemblance to a clothes iron. The neighborhood around it is called the Flatiron District after its signature building, the Flatiron Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1966, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The site on which the Flatiron Building would stand was bought in 1857 by Amos Eno, Eno tore down the four-story St. Germaine Hotel on the south end of the lot, and replaced it with a seven-story apartment building, the Cumberland. On the remainder of the lot he built four buildings for commercial use. This left four stories of the Cumberlands northern face exposed, which Eno rented out to advertisers, including The New York Times, who installed a sign made up of electric lights. Eno later put a screen on the wall, and projected images onto it from a magic lantern on top of one of his smaller buildings, presenting advertisements. Both the Times and the New York Tribune began using the screen for news bulletins, and on election nights tens of thousands of people would gather in Madison Square, waiting for the latest results. During his life Eno resisted suggestions to sell Enos flatiron, as the site had become known, but after his death in 1899 his assets were liquidated, and the lot went up for sale. Instead, the lot was bought at auction by William Eno, one of Amoss sons, three weeks later, William re-sold the lot to Samuel and Mott Newhouse for $801,000. Black, CEO of the Fuller Company, the Fuller Company was the first true general contractor that dealt with all aspects of building construction except design, and they specialized in building skyscrapers. Black intended to construct a new building on the site, despite the recent deterioration of the surrounding neighborhood. The building, which would be Burnhams first in New York City, the Flatiron Building was designed by Chicagos Daniel Burnham as a vertical Renaissance palazzo with Beaux-Arts styling. Early sketches by Daniel Burnham show a design with an clockface, though Burnham maintained overall control of the design process, he was not directly connected with the details of the structure as built, credit should be shared with his designer Frederick P. Working drawings for the Flatiron Building, however, remain to be located, though renderings were published at the time of construction in American Architect and Architectural Record. Building the Flatiron was made feasible by a change to New York Citys building codes in 1892 and this opened the way for steel-skeleton construction. It was a familiar to the Fuller Company, a contracting firm with considerable expertise in building such tall structures. At the vertex, the tower is only 6.5 feet wide, viewed from above

28.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange

29.
Mumbai
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Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India and the ninth most populous agglomeration in the world, Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named a world city. It is also the wealthiest city in India, and has the highest GDP of any city in South, West, Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires and millionaires among all cities in India. The seven islands that came to constitute Mumbai were home to communities of fishing colonies, during the mid-18th century, Bombay was reshaped by the Hornby Vellard project, which undertook reclamation of the area between the seven islands from the sea. Along with construction of roads and railways, the reclamation project, completed in 1845. Bombay in the 19th century was characterised by economic and educational development, during the early 20th century it became a strong base for the Indian independence movement. Upon Indias independence in 1947 the city was incorporated into Bombay State, in 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Bombay as the capital. Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India and it is also home to some of Indias premier scientific and nuclear institutes like BARC, NPCL, IREL, TIFR, AERB, AECI, and the Department of Atomic Energy. The city also houses Indias Hindi and Marathi film and television industry, Mumbais business opportunities, as well as its potential to offer a higher standard of living, attract migrants from all over India, making the city a melting pot of many communities and cultures. The oldest known names for the city are Kakamuchee and Galajunkja, in 1508, Portuguese writer Gaspar Correia used the name Bombaim, in his Lendas da Índia. This name possibly originated as the Old Portuguese phrase bom baim, meaning good little bay, in 1516, Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa used the name Tana-Maiambu, Tana appears to refer to the adjoining town of Thane and Maiambu to Mumbadevi. Other variations recorded in the 16th and the 17th centuries include, Mombayn, Bombay, Bombain, Bombaym, Monbaym, Mombaim, Mombaym, Bambaye, Bombaiim, Bombeye, Boon Bay, and Bon Bahia. After the English gained possession of the city in the 17th century, Ali Muhammad Khan, imperial diwan or revenue minister of the Gujarat province, in the Mirat-i-Ahmedi referred to the city as Manbai. By the late 20th century, the city was referred to as Mumbai or Mambai in the Indian statewise official languages of Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Kannada and Sindhi, the Government of India officially changed the English name to Mumbai in November 1995. According to Slate magazine, they argued that Bombay was a corrupted English version of Mumbai, Slate also said The push to rename Bombay was part of a larger movement to strengthen Marathi identity in the Maharashtra region. A resident of Mumbai is called mumbaikar in the Marathi language, the term has been in use for quite some time but it gained popularity after the official name change to Mumbai. Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands, Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli and it is not exactly known when these islands were first inhabited

30.
Mexico City
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Mexico City, or City of Mexico, is the capital and most populous city of Mexico. As an alpha global city, Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in the Americas and it is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres. The city consists of sixteen municipalities, the 2009 estimated population for the city proper was approximately 8.84 million people, with a land area of 1,485 square kilometres. The Greater Mexico City has a domestic product of US$411 billion in 2011. The city was responsible for generating 15. 8% of Mexicos Gross Domestic Product, as a stand-alone country, in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America—five times as large as Costa Ricas and about the same size as Perus. Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Amerindians, the other being Quito. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the district was created in 1824. Ever since, the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution has controlled both of them, in recent years, the local government has passed a wave of liberal policies, such as abortion on request, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage. On January 29,2016, it ceased to be called the Federal District and is now in transition to become the countrys 32nd federal entity, giving it a level of autonomy comparable to that of a state. Because of a clause in the Mexican Constitution, however, as the seat of the powers of the federation, it can never become a state, the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was founded by the Mexica people in 1325. According to legend, the Mexicas principal god, Huitzilopochtli indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco, when the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of many of the native peoples. Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him, the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone, and they elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, but he soon died, the next king was Cuauhtémoc. Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521, for three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island, the Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest. Cortés first settled in Coyoacán, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order and he did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown

31.
Monterrey
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Monterrey, is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, in Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation, Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the base of many significant international corporations. It is one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico with a GDP PPP of 130.7 billion dollars in 2012, Monterreys GDP PPP per capita is of approximately 32,000 dollars. It is considered a Beta World City, cosmopolitan and competitive, rich in history and culture, Monterrey is considered one of the most developed cities in the entire country and often regarded as the most americanized in Mexico. A. Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery and Heineken, which features Norteño capital and Grupo ALFA, Monterrey is located in northeast Mexico, at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The uninterrupted settlement of Monterrey starts in 1596, with its founding by Diego de Montemayor, in the years after the Mexican War of Independence, Monterrey became an important business center. With the establishment of Fundidora Monterrey, the city experienced a great industrial growth, prior to the European foundation of the city, there was no established nation state, and the population instead consisted of some indigenous semi-nomad groups. Carved stone and cave painting in surrounding mountains and caves have allowed historians to identify four major groups in present-day Monterrey, Azalapas, Huachichiles, Coahuiltecos and Borrados. In the 16th century, the valley in which Monterrey is located was known as the Extremadura Valley, in 1580 he arrived in the newly granted lands but it was not until 1582 that he established a settlement called San Luis Rey de Francia within present-day Monterrey. The New Kingdom of León extended westwards from the port of Tampico to the limits of Nueva Vizcaya, Monterrey was also the point of emigration from Europe, people from Portugal, Spain, France, Russia went to Monterrey seeing it as a good place to live in. Most of the Monterrey people descent from a creole Spanish heritage, during the years of Spanish rule, Monterrey remained a small city, and its population varied from a few hundred to only dozens. The city was a place that facilitated trade between San Antonio, Tampico and from Saltillo to the center of the country, tampicos port brought many products from Europe, while Saltillo concentrated the Northern Territories trade with the capital, Mexico City. San Antonio was the key trade point with the foreign colonies. In 1824, the New Kingdom of León became the State of Nuevo León, in 1846, the earliest large-scale engagement of the Mexican-American War took place in the city, known as the Battle of Monterrey. Mexican forces were forced to surrender but only after successfully repelling U. S. forces during the first few advances on the city, the battle inflicted high casualties on both sides, much of them resulting from hand-to-hand combat within the walls of the city center. Many of the generals in the Mexican War against France were natives of the city, including Mariano Escobedo, Juan Zuazua, during the last decade of the 19th century, the city of Monterrey was linked by railroad, which benefitted industry. In 1986, several games of the 1986 FIFA World Cup were hosted. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert caused great damage to the city, the conference resulted in the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus, which has become one relevant reference point for international development and cooperation

32.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat

33.
Istanbul
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Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire

34.
Funerary art
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Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term also encompasses cenotaphs, tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and communal memorials to the dead, funerary art may serve many cultural functions. The deposit of objects with an apparent aesthetic intention is found in almost all cultures—Hindu culture, an important factor in the development of traditions of funerary art is the division between what was intended to be visible to visitors or the public after completion of the funeral ceremonies. A similar division can be seen in grand East Asian tombs, in other cultures, nearly all the art connected with the burial, except for limited grave goods, was intended for later viewing by the public or at least those admitted by the custodians. In these cultures, traditions such as the sarcophagus and tomb monument of the Greek and Roman empires. The mausoleum intended for visiting was the grandest type of tomb in the classical world, Tomb is a general term for any repository for human remains, while grave goods are other objects which have been placed within the tomb. Such objects may include the personal possessions of the deceased, objects created for the burial. Knowledge of many cultures is drawn largely from these sources. A tumulus, mound, kurgan, or long barrow covered important burials in many cultures, a mausoleum is a building erected mainly as a tomb, taking its name from the Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus. Stele is a term for erect stones that are often what are now called gravestones, ship burials are mostly found in coastal Europe, while chariot burials are found widely across Eurasia. Catacombs, of which the most famous examples are those in Rome, a large group of burials with traces remaining above ground can be called a necropolis, if there are no such visible structures, it is a grave field. A cenotaph is a memorial without a burial, particularly influential in this regard was John Weevers Ancient Funerall Monuments, the first full-length book to be dedicated to the subject of tomb memorials and epitaphs. Others, however, have found this distinction rather pedantic, related genres of commemorative art for the dead take many forms, such as the moai figures of Easter Island, apparently a type of sculpted ancestor portrait, though hardly individualized. These are common in cultures as diverse as Ancient Rome and China, many cultures have psychopomp figures, such as the Greek Hermes and Etruscan Charun, who help conduct the spirits of the dead into the afterlife. Most of humanitys oldest known archaeological constructions are tombs, mostly megalithic, the earliest instances date to within a few centuries of each other, yet show a wide diversity of form and purpose. Tombs in the Iberian peninsula have been dated through thermoluminescence to c.4510 BCE, and some burials at the Carnac stones in Brittany also date back to the fifth millennium BCE. The commemorative value of burial sites are indicated by the fact that, at some stage, they became elevated. This effect was achieved by encapsulating a single corpse in a basic pit, surrounded by an elaborate ditch

35.
Qinshihuang
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Qin Shi Huang was the founder of the Qin dynasty and was the first emperor of a unified China. He was born Ying Zheng or Zhao Zheng, a prince of the state of Qin. He became the King Zheng of Qin when he was thirteen, then Chinas first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of king borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers and his self-invented title emperor, as indicated by his use of the word First, would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia. Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and he is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars, though a closer examination renders the account doubtful. In ancient China however the naming convention differed, and Zhao may be used as the surname, the rulers of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin and this title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and of Zhou, the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC. Following the surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng had reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou, rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of huángdì for himself. This new title combined two titles—huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors of Chinese prehistory. King Zheng chose the new name of First Emperor on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the Second Emperor, Third Emperor. The new title carried religious overtones, for that reason, Sinologists—starting with Peter Boodberg or Edward Schafer—sometimes translate it as thearch and the First Emperor as the First Thearch. The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, following his elevation as emperor, both Zhengs personal name 政 and possibly its homophone 正 became taboo. The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person Chinese pronoun 朕 for his exclusive use, others were to address him as Your Majesty in person and Your Highness in writing. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin. Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao, Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei, a rich merchant from the State of Wey. Lü consented for her to be Yirens wife, who became known as Lady Zhao after the state of Zhao. Lü Buweis machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin in 250 BC, however, the Records of the Grand Historian also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to translations of the Annals of Lü Buwei, Zhao Ji gave birth to the emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC

36.
Terracotta Army
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The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE, the figures, dating from approximately the late third century BCE, were discovered in 1974 by local farmers in Lintong District, Xian, Shaanxi province. The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals, the figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Other terracotta non-military figures were found in pits, including officials, acrobats, strongmen. The construction of the tomb was described by historian Sima Qian in his most noted work Shiji, work on the mausoleum began in 246 BCE soon after Emperor Qin ascended the throne, and the project eventually involved 700,000 workers. Sima Qian wrote that the First Emperor was buried with palaces, towers, officials, valuable artifacts, according to this account,100 flowing rivers were simulated using mercury, and above them the ceiling was decorated with heavenly bodies below which were the features of the land. Some translations of this passage refer to models or imitations, however, those words were not used in the original text, high levels of mercury were found in the soil of the tomb mound, giving credence to Sima Qians account. Later historical accounts suggested that the tomb had been looted by Xiang Yu, however, there are indications that the tomb may not have been plundered. For centuries, occasional reports mentioned pieces of terracotta figures and fragments of the Qin necropolis – roofing tiles and this discovery prompted Chinese archaeologists to investigate, revealing the largest pottery figurine group ever found in China. A museum complex has since been constructed over the area, with the largest pit enclosed within with a large structure, the Terracotta Army is part of a much larger necropolis. Ground-penetrating radar and core sampling have measured the area to be approximately 38 square miles, the necropolis was constructed as a microcosm of the emperors imperial palace or compound, and covers a large area around the tomb mound of the first emperor. The earthen tomb mound is located at the foot of Mount Li and built in a pyramidal shape, the necropolis consists of several offices, halls, stables, other structures as well as an imperial park placed around the tomb mound. The warriors stand guard to the east of the tomb, up to 5 metres of reddish, sandy soil had accumulated over the site in the two millennia following its construction, but archaeologists found evidence of earlier disturbances at the site. These were discarded as worthless and used along with soil to fill the excavations. The tomb appears to be a space the size of a football pitch. The tomb remains unopened, possibly due to concerns over preservation of its artifacts, for example, after the excavation of the Terracotta Army, the painted surface present on some terracotta figures began to flake and fade. The lacquer covering the paint can curl in fifteen seconds once exposed to Xians dry air, four main pits approximately 7 metres deep have been excavated. These are located approximately 1.5 kilometres east of the burial mound, the soldiers within were laid out as if to protect the tomb from the east, where all the Qin Emperors conquered states lay

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Qin dynasty
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The Qin dynasty was the first dynasty of Imperial China, lasting from 221 to 206 BCE. The strength of the Qin state was increased by the Legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the fourth century BC. It is also the shortest dynasty in Chinese history, lasting only 15 years with two emperors, Qin administration was by no means purely punitive, and was not harsher than was generally prevalent at the time. Though often anathema to Legalist philosophy, Confucianism and its values too coexisted with Legalism during the reign of the First Emperor, Qin administrative documents considered such matters as filial piety, and one circulated letter reads that The purpose of all standards. Is to teach and lead the people, rid them of dissoluteness and depravity. during its reign over China, the Qin sought to create an imperial state unified by highly structured political power and a stable economy able to support a large military. This allowed for the construction of projects, such as a wall on the northern border. For years, local rulers built walls along Chinas northern border to protect their villages from invaders, Three hundred thousand peasants and convicts were forced to work on this 1,400 mile wall. The Qin dynasty introduced reforms, currency, weights and measures were standardized. The Qins military was revolutionary in that it used the most recently developed weaponry, transportation, an attempt to restrict criticism and purge all traces of old dynasties led to the supposed burning of books and burying of scholars later espoused by Confucians. Despite its military strength, the Qin dynasty did not last long, the advisors squabbled among themselves, however, resulting in both their deaths and that of the second Qin emperor. Popular revolt broke out a few later, and the weakened empire soon fell to a Chu lieutenant. Despite its rapid end, the dynasty influenced future Chinese empires, particularly the Han, in the 9th century BC, Feizi, a supposed descendant of the ancient political advisor Gao Yao, was granted rule over Qin City. The modern city of Tianshui stands where this city once was, during the rule of King Xiao of Zhou, the eighth king of the Zhou dynasty, this area became known as the state of Qin. In 897 BC, under the regency of Gonghe, the became a dependency allotted for the purpose of raising and breeding horses. One of Feizis descendants, Duke Zhuang, became favoured by King Ping of Zhou, as a reward, Zhuangs son, Duke Xiang, was sent eastward as the leader of a war expedition, during which he formally established the Qin. The state of Qin first sent an expedition into central China in 672 BC. By the dawn of the fourth century BC, however, the tribes had all been either subdued or conquered. The resulting city greatly resembled the capitals of other Warring States, notably, Qin Legalism encouraged practical and ruthless warfare

38.
ESADE
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The Escola Superior dAdministració i Direcció dEmpreses is a Jesuit educational institution within the Ramon Llull University, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. ESADE runs two schools of the university, ESADE Business School and ESADE Law School, as well as a language center, ESADE Business School is one of the best business schools in the world, according to numerous rankings. In 2006 and 2007 ESADE was listed as the world’s best business school by The Wall Street Journal, in 2012, the Financial Times ranking of the best European business schools ranks the school 5th of 80 selected top business schools. On top of that, ESADE Business School is ranked 13th worldwide in the eduniversal ranking, as one of 57 business schools worldwide, ESADE has been awarded the Triple accreditation by EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA. The school has formed a strategic alliance with the Ramon Llull University in its undergraduate programmes in Law. The ESADE project was conceived in the spring of 1954 by a group of Spanish professionals, the school signed an agreement with the Jesuits in October 1958 and started offering its first academic programs in a small building in the district of Sant Gervasi, Barcelona. In 1958, ESADE was ultimately founded, two years later, in 1960, executive education programmes were introduced. In 1964 the colleges MBA programme was established, a year later, in 1965, ESADEs Barcelona campus opened, as well as the Executive Language Centre. In 1993, ESADE Law School opened, in 2001, the school inaugurated its campus in Madrid, and two years later its campus in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both are primarily used for executive education, in 2009 ESADE opened a new campus in Sant Cugat as well as ESADE Creapolis, a technology park based on open innovation and situated on the new Sant Cugat campus. Today ESADEs campuses, if the premises in both Madrid and Barcelona are included, cover an area of 30, 000m2. ESADE offers a variety of degrees, including degrees in Law and Business, Master Programmes in Management, MBAs, EMBAs. The Masters in International Management has been ranked 7th worldwide by the Financial Times in 2012, the ESADE MBA has been ranked 16th worldwide by the magazine The Economist in 2013 and 21st worldwide by the Financial Times in 2012. The magazine Business Week currently ranks the ESADE MBA 4th among all non-U. S, the Financial Times ranks ESADEs Customized Executive Education Programmes 4th in the world in 2013. ESADE Business School is ranked 5th out of 80 selected top business schools in the Financial Times ranking of 2012, ESADE Creapolis is a joint venture between ESADE, a consortium of Spanish financial institutions, local government institutions and business associations. The organisation manages a technology and innovation park on the ESADE campus in Sant Cugat, ESADE Creapolis also has a Business Incubator, a place where new business ideas and market opportunities are given all necessary support to create new companies and to accelerate them. Between 2005 and 2008 ESADE Creapolis invested €70 Million in its facilities in Sant Cugat and has become home to various start-ups. ESADE Creapolis acts as a broker, bringing together the ideas of the participating organisations

A stone rubbing of a carved relief from the Han dynasty depicting Jin Ke's assassination attempt on Qin Shi Huang; Jin Ke (left) is held by one of Qin Shi Huang's physicians (left, background). The dagger used in the assassination attempt is seen stuck in the pillar. Qin Shi Huang (right) is seen holding an imperial jade disc. One of his soldiers (far right) rushes to save his emperor.

Dujiangyan, an irrigation project completed in 256 BC during the Warring States period of China by the State of Qin. It is located on the Min River (Chinese: 岷江; pinyin: Mínjiāng) in Sichuan, China, near the capital Chengdu. Although a reinforced concreteweir has replaced Li Bing's original weighted bamboo baskets, the layout of the infrastructure remains the same and is still in use today to irrigate over 5,300 square kilometers of land in the region.